Mets Sleepwalk Through a Loss to the Giants as Harvey Begins Easy Throwing

The Mets' Juan Lagares after the Giants turned a double play on a Jonathon Niese line drive in the sixth inning.

Mike Stobe / Getty Images

By TIM ROHAN

August 1, 2014

David Wright spent his day off on Thursday at his father-in-law’s lake house in the Poconos. He did some fishing, watched his wife’s half-siblings go wakeboarding, and decompressed. That also meant staying off his phone as the nonwaiver trade deadline passed. He checked the phone later and saw that the Mets had done nothing.

That epitomized the Mets’ current sleepy state. They are not rebuilding, but they are not yet competing. They will use the final two months of the season to evaluate. Their 5-1 loss Friday to the San Francisco Giants dropped their record to 52-57.

The Mets might make their move in the off-season. General Manager Sandy Alderson could be more inclined to trade his prospects by then. Wright said the Mets were nearing the point when they would be “a piece or two away.”

In the meantime, at least the Mets could track the progress of Matt Harvey, their recovering ace. He threw 15 to 20 pitches off the slope of the mound in the bullpen Friday, at about 60 percent effort, just more than nine months after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Afterward, sitting in the dugout, Harvey beamed.

“It’s kind of like riding a bike,” he said. “It felt pretty normal.”

His official throwing program was not scheduled to start until Tuesday, at the team’s facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla. But Friday was the first day he was allowed to throw off a mound, and he was too excited to wait. Dan Warthen, the pitching coach, watched him throw in the bullpen from a few feet away, his hands on his hips.

Referring to Harvey, Alderson called it “an abbreviated effort on his part.”

During Harvey’s rehabilitation, he and the Mets have not always seen eye to eye. The Mets wanted him to conduct his rehab exclusively at their training complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla., though Harvey preferred to split his time between there and New York. And while Harvey wanted to throw off the mound last month, the Mets held him back to be cautious. Harvey won out on the first issue, the Mets on the second.

Now, however, the throwing program will be conducted in Florida and will last about eight weeks. By the end of it, the Mets hope to have Harvey pitch in a low-pressure game situation. They fear the adrenaline rush of throwing in a major league game would put him at risk.

Harvey apparently disagrees. He told The New York Post this week that he wanted to pitch one inning this year, presumably as a symbolic event. He reiterated Friday that he was “not writing 2014 out,” but he qualified it by saying his health came first.

“Obviously,” he noted, “I can’t write myself in the lineup.”

Without him, the Mets are stuck in their current limbo. On Friday, Ryan Vogelsong, the Giants’ 37-year-old journeyman starter, held them hitless for the first five innings on the way to throwing a two-hit complete game. Jon Niese, the Mets’ starter, allowed five runs (three earned) in eight innings.

The Giants are established contenders with a winning culture. Brandon Crawford and Hunter Pence both tripled in the seventh, putting the game out of reach.

The Mets’ lone bright spot was a solo home run from Lucas Duda. It was his 20th homer of the season, and his sixth in his last nine games.

Before the game, Wright preached patience. He reasoned that staying put at the deadline made sense. “It’s easy to say go get this player or go get that player,” he said. “But, you know, you don’t give up everything you’ve worked hard for the last however many years, acquiring this young talent, and just give it all away.”

Asked how he expected his team to finish the season, Manager Terry Collins said: “I’m trying to stay away from numbers. There’s enough numbers out there right now.”

Correction: August 9, 2014

An article in some editions last Saturday about the Mets’ 5-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants misstated the given name of a Giants player who tripled in the seventh inning. He is Brandon Crawford, not Brendan.